No. Sure, AWP was very disappointing, but Seattle was perfectly fine, and I enjoyed my time there. Maybe I am dissatisfied about AWP. Maybe I am hesitant to say that all the AWP presenters I saw gave content that I already knew plenty about, and that I ended up hearing authors with more money, better book deals, talking about stuff I already knew.

While I don’t mind that, I wanted to show them stories they’d never seen, because, well, they’re sheltered authors, and some of us actually did screw up, and have stories that might not sell a ton, but will entertain. Besides, I figure AWP isn’t interested in anything but their brand of writing, so, it makes sense for me to say that writing serves purposes aside from their stale RHETORIC.

For future reference:If you know something about writing but have no connections, AWP is a waste of money. Networking is a joke and you have to smash people’s faces into tables in order to convince them you don’t care about Journal X. You also have to pay money to listen to authors that write trash that explains how they made that trash, which is marginally useful, but you’d be better off exploring the city you’re in, because AWP is a stale bureaucracy that will die out sooner or later, and, as someone working at a startup, I welcome it, because I’m going to do something for them that is better than they could even imagine.

One Response to Seattle: cool. AWP: meh.

I attended the local Publishing Association of St. Louis monthly meeting, and they spent a lot of time explaining stuff I already knew about. It’s frustrating. I’d recommend pursuing the local writer groups, or publishing groups. I made a few friends. Not big-name, or successful, or anything like that. But people who love to write, nonetheless.